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He stretched out on the blanket in front of me, then pulled out a white plastic pair of sunglasses from his vest pocket.
“Where did you find these?”
He set the ridiculous cat-eyed sunglasses on my nose with a lopsided grin. “My sister leaves them everywhere. Must be twenty pairs between Ma’s house and mine.”
It could have been a lie. They could have been from an old girlfriend, but I was pretty sure he was telling the truth. Beckett didn’t seem to need to sugar-coat anything.
I pushed them up my nose more firmly, just happy to have something to cut the sun. “They’re perfect.” I twisted the cap off the wine and poured, handing a cup to him. “And to tell the truth, this is much better than staying at the reception.”
He took it. “I can guarantee Rach had better food and definitely better drinks.”
“Company makes all the difference.” I held up my cup and he reached out and tapped his against mine.
“That it does.” He took a sip and I saw the grimace.
“Not your drink?”
“Beggars can’t be choosers. I like wine well enough, but my mom likes fruit punch wine. Though I will have to make sure my mom gets some hard cider in the fridge.”
I took a small sip, surprised that the fruity wine hit the spot. We feasted on cheese and fresh strawberries while Beckett told me about the taproom which would be re-opening the weekend before the holiday.
“We are coming out of our slow season and into wedding chaos, but the concerts and live music festivals keep us just as busy these days.”
I sat cross-legged, the cup dangling from my fingers as I relaxed by degrees. After our…momenton the horse I wasn’t sure what to expect. Easy conversation hadn’t been on my list. “What made you start doing concerts?”
“Between my cousin and my now brother-in-law, we ended up with people showing up for jam sessions so much that it only made sense to make a stage for them. Originally, we had a small distillery with a tiny stage made of scrap pallets. It suited us for a few years until more people showed up than we could handle. My brother Justin pushed the idea to use some land that wasn’t really fit for planting. It was just sitting there doing nothing.” Beckett popped a cube of cheese in his mouth. “I wasn’t about to stop him from getting involved with the orchard.”
I frowned. “I thought it was a family operation.”
“With two hundred plus employees at this point.” He grinned at my slack jaw. “We’ve grown over the years, but Justin is what I’d call go with the flow. He did a little of this, a little of that—the kid can fix damn near anything—but I could tell he was bored. He was partying too much.” He propped his head on his hand. “I was a little worried the concerts would just give him an excuse to party more, but he really stepped up. Good thing because I’m not at all interested in the social media crap that entails.”
I laughed. “You don’t seem much of a share to social media kind of guy.”
He dug out his phone and flashed an iPhone that had to be at least five years old or more. It was dinged and dented and I was pretty sure the camera had a crack in it. “What was your first clue?”
“It’s refreshing. Most of the people I know have their phone surgically attached to their hand.”
“Not you?”
I shrugged. “I don’t mind using it as a shield when it’s convenient, but as you can see I haven’t reached for mine since we…”
“Connected?” He grinned and reached over to take the cup from me.
I swallowed. “One word for it.”
He gently urged me onto my knees to get closer to him. “I feel like you’re one of those master conversationalists. You’ll have me talking all about myself for the next hour before I know it.”
“I’m interested in you,” I protested, but I let him maneuver me closer.
“Because you’re a sweet and attentive woman.”
I frowned. “I don’t want to be sweet.”
He rolled onto his back and lifted me to straddle him. “Is that so?”
Trapped by the mirrored glare of his sunglasses I couldn’t quite tell what he was thinking. Was there laughter behind the lenses or that brief bit of heat I remembered from the bathroom? It had all happened so fast I couldn’t be quite sure.
Nervously, I set my hands on his chest. He was warm from the sun and the hard plane of muscles dried up all the moisture in my mouth.
